FG Raises Alarm Over Increased Road Accidents, Inaugurates Presidential Committee

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The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has raised alarm over increasing road traffic crashes on major Federal Highways across the country.

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said this when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the council meeting which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja on Wednesday.

He revealed that data made available by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on road accidents indicated that the Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Kano, and Abuja-Keffi-Lafia expressways recorded the highest number of traffic crashes in the country.

Fashola, however, stated that government had since put some measures in place including the inauguration of a Presidential Committee, National Road Safety Advisory Council to restore sanity to federal highways across the country.

He said that the committee, under the aegis of the National Economic Council (NEC), would be inaugurated by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on June 17.

“So, we identified the need for various actions to be taken from municipal, local government level to state and national level.

“And I acknowledge the fact that after this memo was listed, I got the notice of a Presidential Committee, the National Road Safety Advisory Council, which will be inaugurated tomorrow (Thursday) by the Office of the Vice President.

“This is one step in the right direction under the aegis of the National Economic Council (NEC). So, that should bring all the 36 states together.

“We can take this conversation also there. We highlighted the fact that my officer has asked the FRSC to focus on three roads: the Lagos-Ibadan Highway, the Abuja-Kano Highway, and Abuja-Keffi-Lafia Highway, which show from the data we studied that they had the cumulative highest number of accidents,’’ he said.

Fashola further stated that the council expressed serious concern over the reports on road accidents presented to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) by the FRSC

The minister said that the council noted that those, who died as a result of road crashes, exceeded the combined numbers of those killed by malaria and COVID-19 in the same month.

He said: “Every month, we get reports from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), who are usually one of the first arrivals at traffic crashes on federal highways.

“Those reports are addressed to the Presidency through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), where the FRSC is domiciled with a copy to my office.

“And we pay attention to these things and what we saw are usually high numbers in January 2021. We compare them with January 2020, January 2019, and January 2018.

“So, we saw that this was something that needed to be focused on. We saw that for the month of January, the number of people who died from road crashes exceeded the combined numbers of people who died from malaria and COVID-19 together for the same month.

“While COVID-19 and malaria were receiving national concerted attention, perhaps it was necessary to bring this to the attention of government as part of our strategy for protecting life and property.’’ (NAN)

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